Being the most glaring example of good vs evil in world history,World War IIis an event not often depicted with much nuance in media. For the most part,classic Hollywood films about WWII, likeSergeant York, tended to wind up being glorified jingoistic puffpiecesmeant to convince American audiences about how great and heroic our country always is and always will be, and the Nazis were only ever cartoon villains. It wasn’t until around a decade after the war that you’d find American films willing to inject any level of notable human nuance into the people whose lives were thrown into the meat grinder of the conflict. One such subtler film wasThe Young Lions, a controversial 1958 film that hadMarlon Brando,Dean Martin, andMontgomery Cliftas soldiers who each go through life-changing experiences during the War.
What Is ‘The Young Lions’ About?
Michael (Martin), Noah (Clift) and Christian (Brando) arethree soldiers who each join the fight for their respective countries during WWII, facing different personal challenges. Noah is an American Jewish man who faces prejudice from both his fellow soldiers and higher-ups while having a pregnant girlfriend at home. Michael is an average American who uses his wealthy background to avoid facing any actual combat while battling guilt for doing so. Christian is one of those Germans who really thoughtthe Naziswere going to be good for the economy and slowly realizes his disillusionment and horror at what he’s had to go through in their name.
None of these men seem to have any ill-will or thirst for senseless violence in their hearts, andthey each approach the war as a necessary evil to protect the greater good. Rather than focus on the brutality and bloodshed that was the bread and butter of your typical WWII fare,The Young Lionsprioritizes the battle roaring inside the souls of these three representatives of the common man, which winds up being its biggest strength and its biggest weakness.
The Attempt at Humanist Commentary Feels Dated
While it still deserves credit for examining the underlying moral damage that war inflicts on its participants,there’s something overly schematic and blinkered about its methods. It funnels a healthy chunk of the motivation behind any and all introspection into variousromantic relationshipswith women who serve no other function besides influencing the choices of the men. For instance, most of Michael’s civilian scenes hinge on him venting his frustrations and belabored guilt complex to his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Margaret (Barbara Rush), who tends to prod him into doing more with his life. Or how Noah’s struggles with antisemitism in citizen life are largely filtered through how he wins the affection of his WASP girlfriend, Hope (Hope Lange), in a naïvely optimistic portrayal of love conquering hate. For a film trying to expose the hardships of the human condition, the interpersonal conflicts feel like they come and go too easily.
In a similar vein, it has a strangely hands-off approach to the actual inner workings and combat of the war itself, coming dangerously close to feeling entirely apolitical. Besides some brief establishment of “Hey, these Nazis seem pretty scary,“there’s no real attempt at digging into the true cost or depravity of what was being fought against. It presupposes that the audience will already know how bad WWII was and seems afraid to actually dirty its hands with any of the mud, blood or death, making the “war” parts of this war film feel about as anodyne as a film likeKelly’s Heroes. It makes the overarching thesis feel about as insightful asSeinfeld’sinfamous “war, what is it good for?” quote, albeit one that comes with tasteful direction byMcCarthy-era blacklist victimEdward Dmytrykanda trio of lead performances that complement each other well. While Dean Martin is slick and frumpled and Montgomery Clift is all twitchy angst, it’s Marlon Brando’s performance that embodies all that the film has to offer, both positive and negative.
10 Essential Marlon Brando Movies, Ranked
They’re all contenders.
Marlon Brando Faced Blacklash For His Portrayal of a Nazi Character
WhenThe Young Lionswas released,the bulk of the criticismcame down to how Christian’s storyline was handled and how Marlon Brando chose to play him. Christian is a softspoken and contemplative person who’s always framed as perfectly sensible and well-intentioned, even though he finds his heart torn between two different women. His journey away from Nazi ideology is largely facilitated through his relationship with his commanding officer, Hardenburg (Maximilan Schell), a jovial and strict man of principles who views himself more as a loyal soldier than as an agent of unthinkable evil. Christian’s conscience is first pricked by a young French woman who implies she could love him if he weren’t a Nazi, and then he has an affair with Hardenburg’s wife, who forces him to confront the emptiness of his life. Once again, the man’s romantic interests drive his development and any war activity that we witness is relatively generic and is largely divorced from the complicated discussion of grappling with the Nazi atrocities being committed by ordinary human beings.
However,Christian’s plot having any resonance at all is due entirely to Brando’s performance, a tenderly imploding study in ignorance that’s lacking any of the performative machismoa la Stanley Kowalskithat first made Brando a huge name. Christian just wants to do the “right” thing, but has no idea what that right thing is, and Brando effectively carries that conversation throughout, even as he rarely fully verbalizes said conflict.Brando was often at his best when he could lay into himself and project a self-pitying quality, a “woe is me” affect that brought frailty and interiority tohis most iconic roles, and Christian transcends the tired “good Nazi” trope by Brando stripping him of any sense of glory or larger ambition. Portraying Nazis with sensitivity is still a deeply uncomfortable, and frankly dangerous, idea. But Brando’s performance doesn’t excuse it; he weaponizes it, turning that discomfort into something eerily human and hard to dismiss. To Brando’s credit, it’s hard to watch his eyes search for an answer and not catch a flicker of a conflicted heart.
The Young Lions
